Big series with undefeated Drake starts with this one. KenPom has #79 Drake beating #170 SIU 77-66. Both games of this series have been picked up for National TV with Bradley/Loyola being canceled due to COVID.
Drake's biggest win this season in KenPom ranks is Kansas State at 152 which doesn't include K-State's loss to D2 Fort Hays State. That being said, the Bulldogs have blown out everyone they've played until the 2nd game of the Indiana State series. On the offensive end, the Bulldogs are 11th in the country in effective FG%, 19th in offensive rebounding %, 6th in 3 point shooting %, 27th in 2 point shooting %, 75th in block %, and 60th in overall offensive adjusted efficiency.
And what Drake is good at on the offensive end as a team, they match it on the defensive end as a team. The Bulldogs are 41st in the country in effective FG% against, 70th in turnover % against, 48th in offensive rebounding % against, 47th in 3 point shooting % against, 73rd in 2 point % against, and 45th in steal % against.
Drake's best player is 6 foot Junior guard Roman Penn. Penn is the Missouri Valley Conference leader in assists per game (6.1) and 10th in the country in assist rate (assists divided by the field goals made by his teammates when he's on the court). Penn has also been one of the best shooters in the country. He's 59th in the country in 2 point field goals made (37-53, 70%), 53rd in the country in effective field goal %, and 56th in the country in true shooting %. Penn is 4th overall in the Missouri Valley in field goal % (.618).
The Bulldogs leading scorer this year is 6'6 grad transfer Senior Shanquan Hemphill (14.1 PPG) who came over from Green Bay. Hemphill missed all but 1 game last year with an injury but in the previous season, he started all 38 games for the Phoenix and averaged 11.7 PPG.
Another player to watch for Drake is 6'2 Junior guard DJ Wilkins. Wilkins is 44th in the country in 3 point % (26-49 .531). He's also 39th in the country in effective field goal % and 36th in the country in true shooting %.
6'10 Junior Darnell Brodie has been a big addition for Drake this season. Brodie is a transfer from Seton Hall and is the Bulldogs' leading rebounder with 6.3 rebounds per game. He's 54th in the country in offensive rebounding % and 45th in the country in defensive rebounding %. Brodie is also 5th in the Missouri Valley in field goal % (.607).
6'3 Junior Garrett Sturtz is 3rd in the Valley in steals per game (1.6) and 54th in the country in steal %.
Last Year's games on YouTube:
Betting:
Drake favored by 11.5
Links:
Bryan Mullins Press Conference 12/31
Rodney Watson interview with Assistant Coach Javon Mamon
Looking forward to watching these games, SIU may be the best team Drake will play to date. Will be interesting to see how we measure up against the top half of mvc. Hoping the games are competitive and split would be good, right? Of course I will be rooting to win both!
Looking forward to watching these games, SIU may be the best team Drake will play to date. Will be interesting to see how we measure up against the top half of mvc. Hoping the games are competitive and split would be good, right? Of course I will be rooting to win both!
Drake will definitely be the best team SIU has played thus far.
(Inflammatory political snark)
Looking forward to watching these games, SIU may be the best team Drake will play to date. Will be interesting to see how we measure up against the top half of mvc. Hoping the games are competitive and split would be good, right? Of course I will be rooting to win both!
Drake will definitely be the best team SIU has played thus far.
Agreed!, siu still probably a year away from being a really good team, and that's ok, but these 2 games I think will give us a gauge at what rest of mvc season will look like
Looking forward to watching these games, SIU may be the best team Drake will play to date. Will be interesting to see how we measure up against the top half of mvc. Hoping the games are competitive and split would be good, right? Of course I will be rooting to win both!
Drake will definitely be the best team SIU has played thus far.
Agreed!, siu still probably a year away from being a really good team, and that's ok, but these 2 games I think will give us a gauge at what rest of mvc season will look like
I agree. I think it was a bit premature, especially when you look at the Evansville games, for people to put us near the top of the conference standings, though I would love to be wrong about that, of course.
(Inflammatory political snark)
Drake is pretty sound, but if SIU wants to be in the the mix for the top of the league they have to snag at least one of these games.
Drake has been quite impressive and is athletic, deep and well-coached, with strong PG play from Penn. Starting 11-0 with Robbins transferring is quite a feat.
That said, their personnel is not overwhelming, and they’re definitely due for an L. Hopefully the Salukis can lay (at least) one on them these next couple days. After dropping one to Evansville, getting swept here would be a blow.
Looking forward to watching these games, SIU may be the best team Drake will play to date. Will be interesting to see how we measure up against the top half of mvc. Hoping the games are competitive and split would be good, right? Of course I will be rooting to win both!
While I totally agree with you, since MANY like to use Kenpom, SIU is the 3rd best team Drake has faced this year. Both Kansas St (152) and Indiana St (155) have higher Kenpom rankings than SIU (173). That is even more reason why winning 1 or even both games would be huge for SIU. After watching the last 2 games, I'm HOPING to win both but realistically feel that winning just 1 game would be acceptable.
Drake opens at -11.5.
We have to split here. I think that 1-3 might be tough to recover from in this format. Even with 18 games to play on.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Drake opens at -11.5.
We have to split here. I think that 1-3 might be tough to recover from in this format. Even with 18 games to play on.
Agreed. Last year we beat some teams that I believe we may struggle with this season. We do not have an experienced big guy like we did last year in Benson. I believe they "must" win at least 1 game against Drake if they want to finish in the top 5 in the conference.
If the Drake can get DeVries to stick around for a bit, his son Tucker DeVries is a 4-star coming in next year to lace em up for Dad. He is the Des Moines Registar’s top ranked senior in Iowa.
I think the Drake games are a tall task on the road and back to back. I would like to see us win one but don't think that if we don't we need to panic at all. Winning both would be awesome. But I am just as interested to see the improvement hopefully and see how we bounce back from the E'ville loss and how we are progressing. I do think the Aces, particularly after their win today, will show better than expected over the course of the season. If we get the whole slate of games in for conference season we still have a long way to go. This format doesn't give any team the chance to come back later in the season after hopefully improving, particularly as young as we are, and get a chance against a tough team you play on the road at the beginning. Also I would really like to know who figured the schedule out so that we play what are possibly the three best teams in the conference all on the road, assuming Bradley ever does get to play.
It's a crazy season for sure.
@uncledawgpound Tucker Devries' teammate, Payton Sandfort, is 3-star committed to play at Iowa. It would have been another huge get if Drake was able to sign him too.
Salukis knocking down 3's early. Domask, Jones, Harvey, and Brown all hitting them.
